Frustrating. There are so many exceptional pieces of this film, but there are probably even more pieces that are rather infuriating. The story concerns a neurotic woman who swears she is a medium (Kim Stanley - giving one of the most mannered performances in cinema history). To prove this she devises a plot to kidnap the young daughter of a rich man and then lead the police to her. Her testes-less husband (Richard Attenborough) goes along with her plan. After the first couple of minutes of their interaction, we know how sorry he feels for his wife. He doesn't believe any of what she says, but he'll obviously do anything she asks. The kidnapping plot is truly terrible, though. Neither the original author of the novel, Mark McShane, nor the director/screenwriter, Forbes, knew anything about either committing crimes or police procedures. Either that or everyone in Britain is retarded. Attenborough accomplishes this kidnapping by approaching the child's driver and telling him that the school's headmistress has a note for him. When the driver walks away (with the kid and the keys still in the car), Attenborough jumps in and drives away. Okay, don't you think that when the driver finds that there is no note with the headmistress he's going to run back to the car and find it gone, which would then lead to a massive hunt for the vehicle and the man who lied about the note, whom the driver saw very, very clearly? This crime should have been solved by the next evening. Oh, and don't forget Kim Stanley's trip to the rich man's house, when she tells him that she dreamed about their daughter, who told her the name of her best friend and her favorite stuffed animal. The rich man says, "Oh, you could have heard that anywhere!" Hmm, really? I would think that that would raise a certain amount of suspicion, more than it does anyway (the police visit her house but simply leave when they find them not home, and do not leave anyone to stake out the place).
The there's this stupid backstory about the kidnappers' dead son (they try to hide that fact but it's obvious from the first two seconds of the film). The way hints are dropped it comes as no surprise to any thinking audience that there's something even more special about this kid. When that point is finally revealed, it's just silly. Two years later the film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Would be much more successful with a similar subplot.
It's all so disappointing, because the film is very well directed. Very beautifully so. And Attenborough, despite desperately needing to grow a pair of cojones, is exceptional. Also great is the music, by John Barry. But, damn, so much of the film blows. So little of this story is believable, and it's just so frustrating. That frustration turned into total annoyance by the end of the film. 5/10.
The there's this stupid backstory about the kidnappers' dead son (they try to hide that fact but it's obvious from the first two seconds of the film). The way hints are dropped it comes as no surprise to any thinking audience that there's something even more special about this kid. When that point is finally revealed, it's just silly. Two years later the film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Would be much more successful with a similar subplot.
It's all so disappointing, because the film is very well directed. Very beautifully so. And Attenborough, despite desperately needing to grow a pair of cojones, is exceptional. Also great is the music, by John Barry. But, damn, so much of the film blows. So little of this story is believable, and it's just so frustrating. That frustration turned into total annoyance by the end of the film. 5/10.